Lou Hall

Lou Massey Hall was raised on a farm where she and her twin sister, Sue, took turns cooking dinner when they were young. At age 10 she baked a caramel cake, the first thing she learned to make, and it was on a wood stove.
She worked at the old Bruce Hospital on the square with Ted Vaughn, Nancy McNamee, Mary Gunn and Catherine (she couldn’t recall her last name). She said they taught her so much about seasoning food. “Just a little sugar in anything makes it taste better,” Mary told her. From Ted she learned how to make chocolate pie, and Mug Evans at Trojan Inn taught her how to make yeast rolls, and more.

For 23 years she was a cook on a riverboat where she worked a month and was home a month. The guys on the boat were mostly from Louisiana and they asked her once why she didn’t use Tony Chachere’s seasoning, so that is when she started.
Lou cooks lunch most every day and had just had chicken alfredo and cooked fried chicken livers the other night, she said.

“It’s all in the batter,” she said, telling that she uses Tony Chachere’s instead of salt and pepper to season them.
All the recipes she gave are ones she cooks at least once a month. Her chocolate cobbler has cocoa in the batter saying that the recipe she used for years did not. She saw this on Facebook and decided to try it. It also called for using white sugar and brown sugar, and thought it looked like it would taste better.

She always looks at recipes on Facebook and magazines and tries a lot of new recipes, but not a lot of sweets.
She changed up her Chocolate Sin recipe to have a brownie crust. The Mexican cornbread recipe is good but saute the pepper and onions first, then add them in the mixture. “It makes it taste better,” she said. She cooks with a lot of garlic and onion, and says she likes a good chili recipe.

She made the soup recipe up on her own and says it is a good recipe to change up. “You can add whatever you want,” she said, and she sometimes adds cabbage or a turnip.
“As you go along, you try this or that but my family likes the chicken (with chicken broth) best,” she said. She likes to make a big pot of the soup to freeze for later.

Chunky Vegetable Soup
2 lbs. ground chuck (or you may use chicken)
1 sweet onion, chopped
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
3-14 oz. cans low sodium beef broth (or chicken)
3 cans mixed vegetables with potatoes, rinsed and drained
1 can sweet peas with onions, rinsed and drained
2-26 oz. jars chunky spaghetti sauce
1-14 1/2 oz. can diced tomatoes with sweet onions.

Mexican Bread
1 cup flour
1 cup white corn meal
1 egg
1/3 cup oil
1 cup Mexicorn
1 medium onion
1 green pepper
1 cup cheese
1/2 tsp. red pepper
Mix well and pour into pan. Bake at 400°.

Cream Cheese Cake
3 sticks butter (room temperature)
1-8 oz. cream cheese
3 cups sugar
1 cup self-rising flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. vanilla
Cream butter and cream cheese. Slowly add sugar. Mix well. Add flour and mix. Add vanilla. Don’t overmix. Bake at 325° for 90 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Chocolate Cobbler
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup flour
2 tsp. cocoa
1/2 cup milk
6 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
Pinch salt
Put the 6 Tbsp. of melted butter into dish.
Mix 3/4 sugar, one cup flour, 2 tsp. cocoa, 1/2 cup milk and pour over melted butter.
Top mixture:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups very warm water
1/4 cup cocoa
Mix and pour on top. Bake at 350°  about 50 minutes.

Cake in a Mug
(Trisha Yearwood)
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup self-rising flour
3 Tbsp. oil
2 Tbsp. cocoa
1/2 tsp. vanilla
4 Tbsp. sugar
Chocolate chips
Put in coffee mug. Microwave two minutes. If not done, microwave in 1/2 minute increments until done.

Chocolate Sin
Bake one box chocolate brownie mix with nuts (8×8 box according to package directions in a 9×13 pan. Let cool. Mix 8 oz. cream cheese with one cup powdered sugar and one cup Cool Whip. Mix until smooth and spread over brownie mix. Mix one large instant chocolate pudding with two cups milk until smooth. Pour over cream cheese mixture. Cool overnight. Put Cool Whip on top.